In the 14-year period of 2005 through 2018, canines killed 471 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 66% (311) of these deaths. Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers contributed to 76% of the total recorded deaths. | More »

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Laura Ray, 53, died after being attacked by a pit bull at the Happy Hound Hotel.

Dog Kills Woman West Monroe, LA - The Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed that a woman died after being severely attacked by a dog at a pet boarding facility in West Monroe. On January 9, about 11:00 pm, deputies responded to the report of an injured person at The Happy Hound Hotel located at 517 Smith Street. Deputies found a female victim at the facility with severe injuries, apparently inflicted by a pit bull housed there. Ouachita Parish Animal Control took the dog into custody.

Her niece, Shena Molina Dedmon, posted to her Facebook page several hours ago: "My heart is so torn. My aunt passed away last night. A pit bull attacked her at her work place." Dedmon posted five photographs of Laura Williams Ray, describing her as not just my aunt, "she was my friend, that ride or die aunt that knew all my secrets and never judged" and "she was the most giving person I knew." She was asked to by friends to make her post public so it could be shared.

Charlotte Ann Gerhardt, a friend of of the victim, also posted to her Facebook page and provided more details about the deadly attack.1 "My dear friend Laura Williams (Ray) was mauled and killed by a pit bull last night," Gerhardt wrote. "She was cleaning a kennel where she was employed, when she was attacked. Laura didn't have much in this world, but what she had, she would give you if she thought you were in need." According to both posts, Laura is the mother of four children.

Evening Update and Clarifications

KNOE has updated their earlier report with new information. Laura worked at The Happy Hound Hotel. She was caring for the animals staying overnight when the 50-pound dog attacked her, investigators said. The hotel's owner said they were boarding the pit bull for the first time when it mauled her, but the pit bull's owner signed a form stating the dog was not aggressive. After the attack, the pit bull's owner told Happy Hound the dog had never done anything like this before.

Ouachita Parish Police Jury President, Scotty Robinson, confirmed the dog would be put down. "This situation is horrific and awful. That dog should and will be put down," he told KNOE. The name of the pit bull's owner has not been released, nor has the person agreed to talk to news media. The gender and spay and neuter status of the dog is unknown. The animal is now being quarantined at the Ouachita Parish Animal Shelter. The investigation is ongoing, deputies said.

In December, a rescue dog at a pet boarding facility in Phoenix killed a woman. Carol Harris, 69-years old, was mauled to death at Canine Country Club and Feline Inn, a facility that works with rescue groups by providing housing at a greatly reduced cost for animals that are being prepared for adoption. At the time of her death, Harris was trying to "rehab an orphaned akita" in the hopes of making the animal "adoptable." Harris was a member of Akita Advocates, a rescue group.

I visited the animal shelter recently. While there, I overheard the two female desk clerks discussing a woman who had returned a dog for aggressive behavior. The gist of the conversation:

Woman 1: "I can't believe [ADOPTER'S NAME] returned [DOG'S NAME]! I told her how upset I was with her for doing that! Over ONE fight!"Woman 2: "One fight? That's it??"1: "Yeah, she said the new dog attacked her old dog, and blood was spraying from its head and everything."2: "But still! It was ONE fight! My dogs fight all the time!"1: "Yeah, and you don't return them to the shelter either. I told her how angry I was with her for doing that!"

All the while, I'm silently humming to myself, "Welcome to the new age, to the new age…"

Angry!!!!! I see the friend and minister of the deceased -Charilette- edited her Facebook post and said her friend "died" as if by natural causes with no reference to the pitbull attack!! We really need to SHARE every one of these these tragic deaths on social media and not just on pitbull public safety pages as only a tiny percentage of the attacks make it beyond one night on one local station if they are covered at all . If you can post here please post publicly on social media, too. People reading ads about kennel jobs or adopting pitbulls as pets do not have access to all the facts. I found my way to this site and the facts because someone shared the link on social media. The media can't edit our Shares out Please share Dogsvite.orgs blog posts on your pages

Seems like more animal industry (including shelter) workers have been getting seriously mauled by pits lately. I wonder if it will change the way any of them do business. I know a mobile dog groomer who will not groom pits but she's a one person operation.

The "friend" Charolette Ann Gerhardt quoted in article in this facility in dogs bite blog blocked me when I expressed concerns via PM on Facebook that she DELETED all references to the victim being killed by a pitbull as if she died if natural causes! SHE is the MINISTER that will officiate the deceased funeral!! First she said someone told her to take down the pitbull reference for legal reasons I said most ministers feel secure in speaking truth She then said " This has nothing to do with my ministry. My nephew has two sweetpitbulls and if a brown haired man killed someone I am not going to post that people should be against all brown haired men. "So any attribution of the dog breed is discriminatory. send her some facts. Her nephew is in danger but more importantly if she cant even admit how this woman was savagely murdered she sure should officiate at her funeral So sad

Jaloney, I'm sure getting tired of that false equivocation. Sigh. Why don't people understand that it's illogical to compare breeds of dogs which have been selectively bred to races or types or whatever of people, who haven't? 🙁

Packhorse, I've said it before: pit bulls are changing what people consider normal dog behavior. I grew up with dogs (anecdote alert). I remember very, very few fights. Once my dog who had been attacked by dogs and developed fear aggression (which we worked through with the help of a behaviorist) was afraid of a dog at the fence and redirected aggressively to one of our other dogs. The fear-aggressive dog was 60-70 lbs. (not a pit bull–never owned one of those and never will), and the other dog was 13 lbs. Even though the larger dog was scared and not thinking clearly, he didn't harm the smaller dog at all. Not one scratch. No blood. I saw a couple other minor scuffles over the years over a bone or whatnot, tussles that looked and sounded serious but were "broken up" quickly and easily without a scratch to anyone. I also once saw my grandpa's dogs get in a fight that was a bit more serious. He didn't believe in spaying and neutering (I know, sigh), and his small male Lab mix had been bothering his very large female Malamute who was in heat. They got into it, and my mother was able to break them apart. Again, nobody got hurt. Fighting like those two pit advocates were talking about is not normal!

Signing a waiver that the pit bull was never aggressive before- that is unconscionable. Pit bulls were BRED to act like this, to not warn before an attack. As usual, these people are clueless about what is CLASSIC pit bull behavior.